4.73

5

Dec 30, 2018

This volume of The Worst Journey in the World is a recounting, largely told through the diaries of the participants, of Scott’s ill-fated journey to the South Pole. However, unlike Amundsen’s successful trip, Scott’s polar expedition was about a lot more than winning a race. First and foremost, it was a scientific expedition. The primary goal was gathering data on the climate, geography, geology and biology of Antarctica. Although the pole had to be used as a lure to get funding, for the This volume of The Worst Journey in the World is a recounting, largely told through the diaries of the participants, of Scott’s ill-fated journey to the South Pole. However, unlike Amundsen’s successful trip, Scott’s polar expedition was about a lot more than winning a race. First and foremost, it was a scientific expedition. The primary goal was gathering data on the climate, geography, geology and biology of Antarctica. Although the pole had to be used as a lure to get funding, for the participants it was not as significant to them as it was to the rest of the world. In the author’s words “The disaster may well be the first thing which Scott’s name recalls to your mind (as though an event occurred in the life of Columbus which caused you to forget that he discovered America)”. Sadly, this seems to be the case with Scott.
As interesting as the description of the journey and subsequent recover of diaries and samples was, I found the last chapter the most in the spirit of the expedition. The author analyzes the different approaches used by Scott and Amundson in an attempt to why the decisions were good or bad for each expedition’s situations. He also does a careful analysis of things like the calorie requirements and nutrition content of the food taken on the expedition with the hope of improving future explorations. He ends with an impassioned plea for scientific research for its own sake (it reminded me of the St. Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V). Although this book was written nearly 100 years ago, it has a lot to say that is still relevant today.
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5

Jun 28, 2018

a bit long and tedious in parts, but that probably describes what the explorers went thru in their quest to fulfill Scott's goal of reaching the south pole.

I can't count the times I said to myself that i'd have given up or quit along the way.

I really liked the description of the men as being so helpful and cooperative, altho' the book later said that it wasn't a good plan to not assign exact chores bc some of the volunteers actually damaged their endurance with doing more than was possible.

5

Sep 28, 2016

This review refers to the Libravox audio version.

This second volume covers the final preparations for the British assault on the South Pole in 1911-1912 under the command of Robert Scott, which resulted in the death of Scott and several of his compatriots.